


Flowers

by RelarOfFire



Category: Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss
Genre: Angst, Gen, I like writing angst, Just something, angst angst, chronicler show up until like the end, rambling writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 01:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10322174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelarOfFire/pseuds/RelarOfFire
Summary: Thanks for reading all the way through! Hit the kudos button if you want me to keep writing, or just enjoyed this piece. It let's me know that I should write more often!Want more KKC content? Go follow me on kote-the-inn-keeper.tumblr.com , where I post almost exclusively Kingkiller art, posts, theories, and more!Thanks again! <3





	

"You speak as though you have flowers in your mouth." Bast said, rather bluntly to the innkeeper. Placing a hand under his chin and resting his elbow on the table, the dark haired man pushed the book away from himself. It wasn't very interesting, nor was he in much of a mood to be reading something anyway. 

Kote paused his sweeping, raising a brow and looking to his supposed helping hand. "Oh? And how is that?" He questioned, putting one hand on his hip and resting the broom against his shoulder. Things had just finished being busy for the mid-day; people of the town having run in for a quick lunch and drink. No one staid long, having to go help with the harvest and all. But, the weather was nice and he opened windows while people were inside, allowing the warm air inside the stuffy keep. Now all he had to do was clean up after all the people who tracked in dirt and stones with their boots.

Bast perked up more when he got a response, turning to Kote and even sitting taller. "It's pretty obvious, Reshi."

"Is it now?" Kote hummed, starting to look more annoyed than anything else. He didn't have time to play around with Bast right now. There were chores to be done and things to clean up. Bast's little games and mind tricks were not very welcome at such a time.

Bast nodded once more. "I mean, it's obvious to me."

"I can see that much."

"You talk like you have flowers in your mouth: all perfumed and pretty, even while you're dying." Bast finally explained, waving a hand softly. "You look pretty and give off the aura of joy, even though you've been plucked and forced to sit in a vase with bad water. You're words reflect how you are; carefully picked, always the prettiest words, and gathered into groups instead of just.. natural. You don't see roses growing with lavender, now do you? Yet that's how you're giving your voice and self to people, Reshi."

Kote leaned against the broom as he listened to his fae student speak. He didn't look amused, and even more so as Bast decided to tell him how he was acting and pick him apart. The red head looked bothered and uneasy, trying to give a more stern look than anything. Huffing, Kote stood upright fully once more and just went back to sweeping, choosing to ignore Bast's words and deal with such a topic. What he did and how he went about his life was none of Bast's business. He chose to tag along, and wasn't being forced. So what did it truly matter how he went about his life currently?

Bast frowned when he was ignored, getting up from the table and leaving Celum Tinture on the table to be dealt with another time. "You know I'm right... That's why you won't reply. That's why you don't respond to anything I say about this... 'new' you." He said stubbornly, crossing his arms and shaking his head softly. "Reshi, I have been alive a long time, and I know no one can outrun their past -- Even you. It only goes away for a little while. But, believe me, it will come back to bite you in the ass."

Kote ignored the words more, sweeping more aggressively. Why would he want to be hearing such on such a good day? The inn had had people come in, there had been joy and nice conversations; even if they were more on sided than not. There had been things to do and help to be given! This was not the time for Bast to be weaseling his way into how he lived his own life. Honestly, it never was the time, yet here he was. Trying. Again. Still.

"Reshi--"

"I _heard_ you, Bastas." Kote snapped, still not looking to him. "I heard you the first time. I heard you the seventh, and twentieth, and ninty-ninth. I _heard_. Just because you keep saying it doesn't mean that i will change it. So leave me alone about it."

Bast paused, shocked at the sudden lashing out. Relaxing slowly, he frowned and refused to stop. "Kvothe--"

" **SH**!" Kote snapped, nearly throwing the broom in hand at him. "SH. Don't say that name around here. Don't mutter or whisper or _think_ that name. It brings nothing but trouble and that person isn't even here. You know what happens when names are said. You aren't someone stupid. So stop acting like your some brainless twit."

"You said mine--!"

"I was chastising you."

"And I was doing the same."

"It is NOT the same!" Kote boomed, tightening his grip on the broom. "For the love of Tehlu, get it through your thick skull that he is just dead. dead. Gone. Forever. Away. Whatever way will get you to just stop bringing that ungodly name and idea around!!"

The inn fell silent, and for a moment, it even seemed like the very being of the world hushed. Nothing moved, and even the wind seemed to take a break from blowing just to conform to the tension among the two men. The floor boards stopped their usual creaking, the gentle howling from the open fireplace ceased, and the world was still. The stillness of everything fed into the tension of the situation, building like a storm and waiting to be released.

A small breath of air bubbled from the tension, allowing both men to subside from their harsh stances and shift about. But only just.

"No more of this, Bast. No more... Okay?" Kote asked, eyes shifting carefully and looking Bast over as though he had just brandished iron at the fae.

Bast frowned more, shifting his weight once more. "No, we need to talk about this. You're in this acting too far, and it's time we talk about it properly. I hate seeing you like this; like a cut flower. You know your dying and you aren't doing anything about it!"

"It's the natural state for all things to die, Bast. Who am I to change that?"

"Not like this! You know what I'm talking about and what I mean. This isn't you. This isn't the person I decided to follow and learn from... I don't know who you are." Bast replied, sounded offended and almost disgusted.

That hurt. The innkeeper white knuckled the brook in hand, hair standing on end and standing taller as his brow witched slightly from the insult. His jaw clenched and it took all his might to not shout back or try and use things he swore off years ago. It took all his might to not try and call upon names he had cast into the dark, to use the world around him just out of rage. He couldn't. He wouldn't. No.

Bast waited for a response from Kote, trying to keep his desperation in pushing the man to do what he didn't want too out of his eyes. He tried to keep from leaning forward, from egging him on too much on accident. He was desperate though, begging and willing to sob just to have Kvothe stop acting like some pathetic and soft footed innkeeper. Having tried everything else in the world, now it was coming to being more brash and hard. He had too... it was for Kvothe's on good.

Speaking through clenched teeth, the red head tried to calm himself, feeling anger and hate boiling in his blood an chest. Feeling the warmth of fury spread across his skin and into his mind. He couldn't use those things anymore, he told himself he wouldn't. Not anymore. He was a new person and he was leaving all that behind. "Go do your studies. Stop bothering me right now. I'm busy." He said slowly and carefully.

Bast stared, before frowning and disengaging the situation. It had backfired on his heavily, and the fae knew when to quite. He stepped back softly, letting Kote know that he was stopping the argument without verbalizing such. He gave a short glance to Kote, before grabbing Celum Tinture and leaving the main room, heading upstairs to his own room so the two of them could calm down in their own spaces.

Chronicler came in through the back of the inn, holding vegetable that he had been asked to pick in his arms. "Er, where do you want me to put these? I know the kitchen, but..." He trailed off, seeing the red headed man standing with his hands on one of the tables. "Are... you alright, Kote? You don't look so well."

"I'm fine. Put them on the cutting board, I'll get to them in a moment." Kote lied easily, pushing himself off the table with a small sigh. "Thank you. Feel free to eat whats already in there from the mass earlier."

"Don't mind if I do." Chronicler replied, walking back into the kitchen to do as he was asked.

Kote looked back to the broom, which had snapped in half... "Damn." He whispered, picking up the two halves and sighing. Great, he was going to have to somehow replace it again this month. Whatever Bast was trying to do to him was going to get one of them killed. That was definite. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading all the way through! Hit the kudos button if you want me to keep writing, or just enjoyed this piece. It let's me know that I should write more often! 
> 
> Want more KKC content? Go follow me on kote-the-inn-keeper.tumblr.com , where I post almost exclusively Kingkiller art, posts, theories, and more!
> 
> Thanks again! <3


End file.
